IV Push
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: A storm unsettles the gang and a lost girl claims ties with Johnny Gage. CHiPs Ponch and Jon aid a cliffside rescue.


This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Forty Seven

47. I.V. Push Season Six- Episode 47 Short summary-  
A storm unsettles the gang and a lost girl claims ties with Johnny Gage. CHiPs Ponch and Jon aid a cliffside rescue.

****WARNING**** The long summary to come is very story spoiling and will take away plot surprises if you read it now before reading the longer story below it.

Decide now if you want to read this episode's detailed summary before doing so.

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Long Summary-  
The gang suffers a sleepless night at the station under the fury of a cold winter storm. Chet discovers a teen runaway nearly dead from hypothermia in the back yard. CHiPs officers Frank Poncherello and Jon Baker assist Station 51 in saving a driver driven off a cliff. Johnny Gage suffers qualms when the face of the girl they saved from the cold becomes familiar in memory at Rampart. Dixie helps learn the teenager's identity and CHiP Bonnie Clark accompanies the teen to a retreat for runaways in the mountains.  
A second storm brings a tree down onto their cabin, trapping Gage and Joy Yellowbird inside, injured. Gage confesses a shortcoming to his young friend while a rescue is affected around them. Johnny finds peace after a years long broken promise.

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The Story Unfolds...

Season Six, Episode Forty Seven I. Debut Launch: July 1st, 2007.

*  
From: Jeff Seltun Date: Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:10 pm Subject: The Storm Waif..

The storm raged outside, the rain falling heavily in through the chilly autumn air onto the roof of Station 51.

It was two a.m.

A rustling caused Henry to pick up his head from the couch in the darkness as the shuffling booted feet of all six of the gang got louder. A light switch flicked on.

"Man, what time is it?" Gage mumbled, rubbing his face sleepily as he squinted in the bright lights.

"A bad time." retorted Chet. "We're not sleeping any more."  
he replied crankily, seating himself heavily into a kitchen chair at the table while he adjusted the straps on his pullup trousers. Then his expression completely about faced.  
"Who's turn is it to put the coffee on?"

Hank came into the room and immediately grimaced, fending off the kitchen lights with a hastily raised arm. "Oh,.. that smarts. Somebody, go kick on the emergency lights, would ya.  
My eyes are bleeding." he groused.

"I got it." slurred Marco, pushing a chair in front of him as he blindly progressed across the kitchen to the unit above the doorway. He unsteadily climbed up onto the chair and punched it on manually. Two soft domes flooded out right after Cap flicked off the main ones, leaving the room in a soothing, sleepy pinkish glow.

"Ah,, that's much better." Cap said, making his way over to the frig to dig out a carton of milk. "2 % or skim?" he asked the room at large. Shadows around him animated as the gang called out their preferences, all except Chet.

"I'll take mine decaf.." Kelly said unenthusiastically when he realized no one wanted to reach full wakefulness consciously.  
"On second thought. Skim, with ginger cookies."

"There aren't any left." said Mike Stoker, downing the last one from the box.

"Hey!" Chet complained. "You know the rules. Leave one until it's replaced."

"We can't go shopping now, can we? We're on duty." said Marco,  
yawning as he wrapped Henry over his lap to try and get warm.  
"Brr.. it's so cold. Cap, can we turn on the heater?"

"It's too soon in the season yet. We've got a week to go before the furnace is authorized for a kick on by Headquarters. Go put in a few blankets into the dryer. Snuggle up in those afterwards."  
Hank suggested.

"Good idea." said Marco, draping Henry over his shoulder like a hot water bottle as he got up and left the room. "Who wants one?"

All five hands rose into the air.

Roy opened the cupboards one by one as he rubbed the sleepers out of his eyes. "Say, do we have any hot cocoa left over around here from last winter?"

"Does Cap snore?" Chet scoffed, shaking his head. "That's a dumb question."

"No, it's not. It's on the inventory list for the month. So it's gotta be here."  
Roy said, finally pulling out his pen light to search so he could see better in the dimness of the battery powered bulbs. "Aha!"

Chet shot up out of his seat and made a grab for the box. "I'll fix it.  
I'm the only one around here who never manages to scorch the chocolate."

"Fine. Thanks for volunteering." Roy smirked, taking a chair next to where Johnny was dozing on his elbow propped hand.

Kelly smacked himself on the forehead. "I'm so gullible. is first aid, guys, so we don't all freeze to death, so don't get used to seeing me waiting on you hand and foot, all right?"

"You already get underfoot." Cap grumbled, curled up in his chair like a ball under an unfolded newspaper while he eagerly awaited the hot blankets Marco was heating up. "When we don't want ya to."

"Gawd. What a grump. Is he always like this when he doesn't get enough beauty sleep?" Kelly asked Stoker.

Mike didn't dare answer that when he saw Cap's baleful eye staring out at them from the shell of papers he had buried himself inside of.  
Stoker decided to shoot Chet a nonverbal warning before turning back to place-set out six mugs and saucers for their coming snack.

Gage had no such reluctance. "We're all turning into beasts tonight,  
Chet. Don't tell me you haven't heard all that wind howling out there.  
I swear, if it gets any colder, it's gonna start snowing."

Bang! ...bang..bang, came a noise.

"What's that?" Roy asked, still watching Chet stir in the Nestle's powder into the pot of milk he was boiling on the stove. Annoyed that he was being watched, Chet handed over the stirring spoon to the hovering paramedic and abandoned the both of them. Chuckling, Roy took over the job, enjoying the sweet steam rising up around his head.

Hank sighed. "It's that d*mned pine bough nobody gets to cutting down on lawn days, rubbing the building again. All that racket is what woke us up tonight!" he coughed, irritatedly rolling over again in his chair until his back was to the light.

Bang....bang...

The solid noise was enough to sober the whole gang as they listened to the fury of the fall storm blowing violently outside the windows.

Henry came scrambling back into the dark kitchen on his thick claws and the familiar sound finally made everybody smile. "Hey, look. Henry wants to play." Stoker said, bending over so Henry would come to him for an ear scrubbing.

Chet looked around. "His ball's over there and I'm not getting up."  
he said, from where he slumped in his seat. His eyes were staring up into the emergency light. "If I'm gonna get insomnia and suffer for it,  
everybody suffers along with me."

Gage scoffed. "You already make us suffer. We have to work with ya six days a week and listen to you open up that mouth."

Hank barked. "Put a lid on it, you two, or go back to bed." he said icily.

Chet and Johnny shut up and watched as Roy poured out cocoa into their cups.

Lopez returned to the kitchen which was slowly warming with the four red hot flaming burners Roy had left on intentionally.

Hank eyeballed them and grunted. "Nice effect. It's like a mini fireplace."

DeSoto shrugged. "It's cheap."

Marco chucked his pile of dryer hot blankets into the middle of the table.  
"Here you go. Seven extra one's for Henry." They were eagerly snapped up and used in seconds.

Time passed, but the storm didn't.

The gang slowly shivered and drained two pots of hot cocoa, willing for the ease of sleep to return. Soon, the wool wrapped around their heads, had them dozing fitfully whereever they were draped over the furniture.

Johnny murmured from where he was slumped on the table.  
"Man, am I glad we aren't getting any runs for once. This sucks." he moaned.

The others agreed silently in the stillness.

It was two hours later when they finally got back to bed. Sleep was slow to come when it finally did, near dawn.

-  
"Morning!" Gage said as he cheerfully sailed into the kitchen.  
"What a beautiful day." he said.

"Beautiful to you. The rest of us needs a little more than three hours sleep to feel resurrected, pal. So stop rubbing it in." Chet frowned as he followed him. "It's not a nice day, it's a frosty one."

"But the sun's out. And there's no wind." Johnny grinned.

"I like it tropical." Chet groused.

The sound of a frozen palm frond landing on the roof made all of them look up. "See, our palm trees out there are agreeing with me."

Gage shrugged and broke out the coffee.

Marco, was already cooking morning tacos. The heady spices almost made the others forget their futile sojourn to the rec room during the night.

Cap raised his eyebrows. "Chores before we eat?"

"Yeah, I want to digest a little, peacefully, afterwards, if I'm going to gorge." said Stoker.

Hank laughed. "Okay, Mike you got the bathrooms. Roy and Johnny,  
the mopping. Chet, take out the trash."

Kelly celebrated. "That's short. I'm so on it." he said, moving to the sink and the can under it. He pulled out the bag and tied it shut. "Marco, extra jalapenos on mine if you wouldn't mind."

Lopez smiled. "Coming right up." he said, stirring the meat.

Chet left the kitchen for the apparatus bay. He picked up the trash from next to the engine and the bio hazard bag from near the squad and he struggled to open the rear side door with his free foot.

He finally made it outside, making his way into the backyard blindly.

A soft weight snagged both of this shoes and he nearly pitched forward onto his face. "What th-?" he startled, tossing away the heavy load to save himself as he pinwheeled.

Kelly looked down, wondering what the debris was that had tangled him. He gasped, soundless.

It was a half grown child, wrapped in part of the tarp that used to be on the old engine in the backyard. She was bundled poorly, soaking wet, and unconscious. Her skin was blue.

"Hey! Are you okay?" He shook her shoulder, and found all of her muscles stiff. She stayed silent.

"Oh, sh--" he swore. "Guys, get out here on the double!"  
he shouted, crouching down to roll her carefully over onto her back. "We've got ourselves a runaway. Looks like she's been out here all night!" His fingers tipped back her head and chin as he listened for active breath sounds.

There were none.

"Sh*t." Kelly said, beginning mouth to mouth. "Guys! Grab the gear!"

Her throat was so cold, Chet wasn't sure if she still had a pulse.

Hank and the others flew out of the rear garage door when it suddenly activated from the hit switch. Their arms were soon heavily laden with medical equipment.

Johnny and Roy rushed over. "Cap! It's a young teenager.  
Fourteen or so. Might be hypothermia." he said, bending down over her and looking at her eyes quickly.

Kelly began to talk, fast, when Stoker took over ventilations on the girl for him with a demand valve. "I can't find a pulse. It might not be there."

Gage sighed. "They're reactive. She hasn't been down that long. D*mn, is she icy! Might be too cold to shock if she's actually arrested." Johnny said, carefully searching for a beat at her neck.

"I'll call it in. Marco, go grab the stuff out of the dryer. We need to warm her up asap." Cap ordered.

Johnny shook his head in frustration. "Still can't find it. But she's supple." he said, straightening up to place a hand on her sternum for C.P.R.

"Wait a minute. Open her shirt. I'll scope her." Roy told him, breaking out the defibrillator paddles. He turned on the machine.

Cap and Johnny ripped the stained clothes away from the girl's chest and Kelly rapidly dried the frost off her skin with one of the steaming blankets Marco had grabbed from the running dryer just inside the rear bay doors.

The datascope whined into life and Roy turned a knob to passive read when the monitor fired up. He placed the paddles into position and pressed down. "Artifact.. She's still too wet."  
he said, pulling them off.

Cap and Chet scrubbed harder, and firmer with the hot wool.

"Okay, hold it. Hold it." DeSoto said as Johnny fumbled for a stethoscope out of the I.V. box. Roy tried another reading.

Everybody started holding their breath.

DeSoto blinked.  
"She's idioventricular at twenty. But it's not effective enough. Start CPR. But go easy. Her heart's so chilled, it might stop.  
Somebody get a temp on her. Don't jar her unnecessarily."

Marco started compressions carefully, timing them with Stoker's thumb triggered breaths on the resuscitator, so he didn't prevent any chest rise when it came.

Gage pulled his listening drum away from her ribcage. "I can barely hear it. It's weak, irregular."

Hank got up and ran for the alcove. "L.A. This is Captain Stanley.  
We've a still alarm at our locaton. Roll an ambulance and P.D to Station 51's backyard. Our victim's a minor."

Photo: Storm laced beach and palms.

Photo: The gang reading in the kitchen.

Photo: Johnny getting snipey.

Photo: Roy amused close up.

Animated gif: Cup of hot cocoa.

Photo: Station 51's backyard.

Photo: An unconscious girl on a lawn.

Photo: Chet giving mouth to mouth to a girl.

Photo: Johnny examining a passed out girl.

Photo: Cap in the back yard.

Photo: A worried Marco in the backyard.

Photo: Roy rubbing paddles together.

Photo: Scoping out an EKG using paddles.

Photo: Roy and Johnny treating girl near squad.

*  
From : patti keiper Sent : Thursday, July 19, 2007 2:47 PM Subject : The Icy Edge...

Hank jogged back to the others, after turning on the laundry sink next to the mop cupboard, filling its basin with hot water.

"We've got to get her inside, Cap, and off this cold ground." Roy said.

"Chet, go grab a long board. Rush it." Hank ordered.

Kelly left at a run, tossing a pair of clothes shears onto the girl's stomach. "Those are your sharpest ones." he said.

Roy picked up the scissors and began cutting away all of the chilled girl's soggy wet sweater, jeans and underclothes. "Also throw some of our picnic hot packs into the sink. Bring a bucket of hot water, too!" he yelled after Chet.

"I'll get that internal temp reading." said Cap, kneeling in the grass. He reached into the trauma box for a rectal thermometer. He shook his head in dismay as he looked down. "She's dehydrating already." he said, noticing a large pool of dilute urine leaving her body.

Gage swore. "D*mn. Her core's probably below 32 C. Cap,  
take it anyway to confirm that. What it is will determine what we can do. Rampart's gonna wanna know where she's at to start."

DeSoto picked up the biophone and carried it to the open floor space inside the garage behind the rescue squad. He turned on the garage heaters, full blast. Then he went back outside for the rest of their gear. Thinking ahead, he tossed a couple of I.V. bags of saline solution into the full steaming bucket Chet set against the wall nearest him, along with a couple of 100 ml bolus syringes, still in their wrappers.

Together, all six of the gang got the blanketed girl bundled onto the wooden board for the trip into the station.

"I got a bunch of thermal packs soaking." Chet told Roy, getting out of Marco and Stoker's way as the girl was set down onto the concrete for a resumption of CPR.

Roy hit the close switch on the garage door to shut out the cold.  
"Get them out as soon as they're bathwater temp and set them around her groin, under axilla and along both sides of her neck."  
DeSoto ordered. "Cover her trunk and head up again. But don't rewarm her arms and legs yet."

Cap pulled out the thermometer, and read it against the lightbulb of Gage's penlight. "89.6 F."

"That's severe." Gage told him. "Okay. Thanks." and he opened a channel to the hospital. He glanced at his partner,  
who had finished rigging up and sticking on electrodes for a fast EKG strip. "How's she doing now?"

Roy sighed as he worked on checking and rechecking connections.  
"Still no palpable pulse. She demonstrating Osborn waves, irregular T wave inversions and a prolongation of PR, QRS, and QT intervals.  
That ineffective rhythm's now ten." DeSoto replied.

"Let me see.." Johnny asked as he waited for a reply back.

Chet turned the monitor until Johnny could read the screen.  
"At least it's not atrioventricular or anything agonal." Gage said.

"Point in her favor." Roy agreed. "Make your compressions lighter,  
Marco. We don't want to move too much of that chilled blood around.  
She doesn't need a lot of oxygen right now. Just a bit of perfusion to correct her chemical imbalances until we warm her up again."

"Okay." said Lopez, frowning as he began easing the CPR into shallower repetitions. "Sorry. I forgot for a moment."

"You're doing fine." Roy smiled, as he checked the girl for a pulse.  
It came only with Marco's compressions. "She's not critically cold.  
We can reverse this fairly quickly if being chilled is her only problem."

Reassured, Marco relaxed, nodding. His efforts smoothed out.

Stoker heard a knocking at the side door and looked up from where he was working on ventilating the girl with the demand valve. "It's the police. I think it's Vince."

"I'll get him." said Cap and soon, the traffic cop was striding towards them.  
Rapidly, Hank filled Vince in on the situation.

Vince nodded. "Okay, Hank. I'll call a judge to have her put in protective custody. As for treatment authorization, just my being here's good enough.  
I'm all you need for that. This is life threatening."  
Johnny tossed his head in satisfaction when the biophone came to life.

##Unit calling in, please repeat.## said Dr. Brackett over the landline.

"Rampart, this is Squad 51. We've a fourteen year old female. Unconscious after what we believe was exposure to the cold all last night. No shock was advised on monitor, but there were no vitals signs palpable, even after a check of a minute or two. We've an unorganized ventricular rate around ten with J-waves. CPR,  
oxygen administration, and rewarming measures are in progress. Core temperature is reading at 89.6 F, with reactive pupils. Uh, she's also showing signs of active cold diuresis."

##All right, 51. Maintain her respiratory resuscitation rate and CPR as normal, but increase the duration of your pulse checks to 30 seconds. Insert an endotrachael tube to guarantee that airway. That intubation won't put her at any more risk of ventricular fibrillation than normothermic patients from vagal stimulation. She's already too slow. Obtain a vascular route and administer a fluid bolus of 300 ml warmed NS, from a 1000 ml bag. Be sure to shake it well to avoid hot spots.  
If she develops atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, PVCs, or atrioventricular block, don't treat her at all. Specifically, don't give atropine and don't use the pacemaker setting on your defibrillator. If she goes into V-fib or pulseless V-tach once she's a little warmer, defibrillate one time at 200 joules. I'll authorize 350 mg of bretylium slow IV push only if that ventricular rhythm looks like its gonna degenerate. Send me a strip. I want to confirm your findings.##

"10-4, Rampart, sending you a strip." Gage replied.

Roy relayed their telemetry, gesturing for Marco and Stoker to pause CPR for those fifteen seconds.

Brackett spoke up again. ## Good call starting CPR. That's not an organized enough rhythm. We'll perform bypass rewarming once she gets here.  
Insulate her to prevent further heat loss and keep her completely horizontal.  
If she's still losing that fluid aggressively, go ahead and repeat that heated bolus as often as necessary, until you end it. Let's consider her blood glucose and treat accordingly. Test her levels. If she lapses into asystole, use CPR only. Her liver's too cold to metabolize ALS drugs. Attempt temporary ventricular pacing once she's warmer than 90 F to support the heart rate if it is still slow enough then, to impair hemodynamics. Bring her in gently, 51.##

Gage rubbed his forehead as he recited back their orders, word for word.

The gang fell silently busy, trying to save the young runaway's life.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The doors of the Emergency Room burst open.

Dixie McCall and Dr. Brackett met Johnny and Roy as they wheeled in their hypothermic teenager. Kel noticed right away that CPR wasn't being done. "What's she at?" he asked.

Gage continued to steer the bed rapidly toward the dialysis room they were headed for. "She's breathing, but in AIVR. Thirty five at the carotid with an occasional beat palpated at the brachial."

"Did you need to sync?"

"No, she seems to be coming out of it a bit." Roy replied.

Kel eyed their monitor as they hurried down the hall.  
"That's more like it. Temperature? Glucose?" Dr. Brackett said.

"91.0 F and 80." Roy answered.

"Okay.." Brackett said as the entered the stabe room they had set up.  
"Dixie.. I want some blood tests. The complete workup. Also cardiac enzymes.  
There's still the possibility of acute myocardial infarction if she's a drug user.  
I want to check her renal status with a BUN and creatinine. If she proves to be a previous heart patient, this accelerated idioventricular rate may be due to prescription digoxin toxicity. Get a chemistry panel, including electrolytes,  
and a magnesium level."

McCall nodded, accepting the chart he had just signed."Right away, Kel."

Johnny locked her bed wheels and switched over her O2 while Roy traded out the outdoors cooled blankets for fresh hot ones from trauma room's autoclave. "What do you want us to do, doc?" Gage asked, keeping a hand on the girl's neck pulse.

"Let's try increasing her sinus rate with atropine. She's finally warm enough.  
Administer 1.2 mg IV. If that doesn't work, we'll try Isoproterenol in a 0.5 mcg/min drip with further pacing." Dr. Brackett told them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Twenty minutes later, Roy and Johnny left the treatment room and headed for Dixie's desk for much welcomed cups of hot coffee.

Johnny leaned heavily on the desk and scrubbed his hair with both sets of fingers. "Man, I'm sure glad she's gonna make it. That was too close."

Roy crossed his arms together. "Yeah. But it kind of makes you wonder what she was doing out there in the yard in the first place, doesn't it?"

Gage sighed, looking miserable. "We heard her, you know. She must have been the reason for all that pounding on the wall last night."

DeSoto shook his head. "No, that was definitely the tree branch. That knocking wasn't coming from the back of the garage. It was loudest in the kitchen."

Johnny looked at him. "That still leaves us with a mystery. Why did she come looking for help from us in the middle of the night?"

"Maybe she didn't." DeSoto whispered. "You know how suicidals can get."

Gage frowned, and pushed away his mug without touching it.

Photo: Roy and Johnny working on a girl in the yard.

Photo: Roy intently treating someone.

Photo: An unconscious teen on the grass.

Photo: Brackett answering a rescue call.

Photo: Gage working on a patient, bending close.

Photo: Fingers injecting fluid into an I.V. port.

Photo: A backboarded femaled getting CPR.

Photo: Gage with a female patient hurrying down hall.

Photo: Roy and Johnny looking morose, in jackets.

*  
From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy Date: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:40 am Subject: The Face From The Past..

Johnny got out of the squad seconds after Roy was through backing it into the vehicle bay and tried not to look at the pool of drying water still staining the concrete floor behind them where the teen girl had lain. A plugged in PPV hadn't yet dried the spot out completely.

"It's only four hours to lunch time, but I'm not even hungry yet." he grumbled to Roy.

"Why not? We didn't lose her. And Brackett said that she was almost waking up when we walked by her treatment room and peeked back in, remember?" Roy rejoined, looking surprised as he leaned on the hood of the rescue truck, regarding Johnny with a look.

"It's not the fact that we saved her, Roy. It's the fact that she even needing saving to begin with. I mean, what kind of legal guardian would let a girl her age get out in the middle of the night and into so much trouble like that?"

Roy studied Johnny's worried face thoughtfully.  
"Speaking as a parent, you can't watch your kids every single moment of the day. It's impossible. You have to sleep,  
work, go to the grocery store, what have you. And I can only imagine what it's gonna be like when my kids get to be her age.  
I'm sure both of them are going to be chafing at the bit to get out a little to see friends and the city sights. Quite frankly, I'm not looking forward to that time at all."

Gage stopped rubbing his face wearily. "Why not?"

DeSoto smiled. "Because it means that Joanne and I will be letting go a little more, and getting less involved with their lives. Especially when they start asking for those hours of independence. It'll be time away from us as a family." he sighed. "Changes like that, our friends with teenagers are saying, can make you feel a little out of the loop at times."

"Yeah, well, this young girl fell completely out of somebody's loop and it's making me real mad if you really want to know."

That admission, didn't surprise Roy in the least. He had seen the internal storm in his partner brewing the whole way back from the hospital.  
"We've done all we can, Johnny. Now it's up to the courts and the legal system to determine where she'll end up again once she's better.  
If she's truly a runaway, it could be just hormones acting on her. She may have a perfectly decent set of parents out there somewhere who are worried just as sick about her, as you are." DeSoto grinned, winking at his partner. "So don't fret too much."

Gage made a face. "I'm not worried about her I'm-- Okay so I'm a little concerned. Geez, Roy, she almost died out there, a few feet away from a whole fire station full of paramedics, firefighters, and rescue gear."

Kelly walked by on his way to the showers. He was sweaty from a heavy workout with the station's barbells. "Never get emotionally involved with a victim, Johnny. Don't they tell you that in all the paramedic manuals or something?" he quipped as he went through the lockerroom doors and out of the garage.

Johnny snapped. "Why don't you just shut up and mind your own business here. Can't you see that Roy and I are debriefing?" he shouted after him.

"No. Sounds like you're drowning, Gage." came Kelly's voice.

Johnny's mouth flopped open, and a world of insult began rising in him at the rejoiner. He started after Chet.

But then Roy gestured. "Leave him be. He doesn't know the whole story. Come on, let's grab that cup of coffee you never had, to settle your nerves a little. And let's add plenty of sugar to it, too. Believe it or not, you ARE getting hungry. I can tell."

"My stomach's not growling.." Johnny complained.

"No, but your mood is. Humor me a little." Roy told him as they began walking by the wall map in the garage for the hallway into the rec room.  
"And drink up a whole lot."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cap and the others looked up from the magazines they were reading in the kitchen. "How's she doing?" Hank asked.  
The tone of his voice was a little eager, coated most likely because he was a father of children himself.

"Better. Headed for a complete recovery." Roy said. "Now all they have to do is determine whether or not she's suffered nerve damage from being cold for so long before we found her. Brain damage won't factor into it at all, because that chill was protecting her even as it deepened and began effecting her heart rate and her limb muscles. That rare frost was pretty light this morning. So frostbite's not an issue."

Hank's mouth fell open. "That's a relief. Have they I.D.'d her yet?"

"Not yet." said Gage, eagerly spooning in his fourth scoop of sugar into his coffee mug. He elaborately began stirring the mounded pile of crystals floating at the top, until they were dissolved enough for drinking. "It's gonna take a while if she decides on not telling anyone who she is." he said thoughtfully, thinking. The rim of his cup had almost reached his lips when a sudden idea struck, causing him to abandon it onto the table. "Say,  
Cap. Can I use your phone?"

Stanley nodded, still petting Henry. "In my office?"

"Yeah."

"Is this personal? Or for business?"

"Definitely the latter, Cap."

"Okay, go ahead. Make an entry into the log about using it and briefly about why for the books."

"I will. Thanks. Great.." said Gage distractedly. The others barely heard him mumble as he hurried out of the room.  
"I can't just sit around here waiting for events to unfold on their own. She's just a kid."

"Uh, oh.." DeSoto said, once he was gone. He hadn't heard Johnny's comment. He didn't need to. Gage's new, odd, behavior alone was enough to set off warning bells.

"Uh, oh. What?" Hank said, getting pulled away from his stocks page.

DeSoto shook his head. "Never mind. I'm not sure what he's up to now and it's probably none of my business for even asking."

Hank was mentally sharp. "Is this involving that girl we just treated this morning?"

Roy didn't want to say anything. But his face gave him away.

"That's not like Johnny at all to act like that about a patient." Marco remarked.

Stoker nodded in agreement. "He's a little too attached to his victim,  
and he's gonna fall."

"No, he won't. He's just trying to help." Roy said to them. "Every paramedic's gotta learn sometime that having close emotional ties to a patient only hurts him in the long run. That's why that rule is there. I learned it, eventually."  
he frowned, thinking back on his own past personal battle with the concept.

Hank sighed. "If and when this starts effecting his job, then I'll step in and say something about it directly. Roy, I'm holding you to tell me immediately if this whole deal begins to hamper him on other calls. Last thing I want to see is a hesitant crewman about anything, you hear me?" he asked firmly, worried.

DeSoto nodded. "I understand, Cap. You'll be the first to know." he said aloud.  
Whispering, to himself, he added. "Right after me."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Cap's office, Johnny Gage picked up the phone and dialed the first person on his mind. Dixie McCall, at Rampart.

"Hey, Dix. It's Johnny. How's that girl we brought in this morning.. uh huh.. uh huh.  
What else can you tell me? I mean, without getting yourself or me, in a whole heap of trouble. Dixie, please, this is important. I think I might know her from before I moved to California. You see, I think she's one of my tribe members." he began.

On the other end of the line, Dixie grew serious and caretaker eager. ##Tell me what you know already and we'll go from there.## she promised. ##So far, the police have had no luck with obtaining any information at all. It's like she's not on anybody's records anywhere.##

"That's because she's from the reservation. We don't give our birth records to the U.S. government until a federal crime's been committed and someone needs to be investigated about it officially. We're our own sovereign nation."

##I get it, Johnny. Now spill the beans. We need her medical records to find out whether or not she's a drug abuser or has a cardiac history. You heard Dr. Brackett. Knowing a positive about either of those two things will have a lot of bearing on how fast she recovers from her ordeal and whether or not she has to be treated further for cardiological or chemical side effects#  
said McCall.

"Okay, okay. I called you, didn't I? Now hush up for a few seconds, please. This isn't easy for me at all. Because I know I'm going around some real heavy duty tribal laws here just talking to you about her.  
I think her name's Yellowbird. First name, Joy. I used to see her at the community center for prayer sessions every Friday. At the time, she was being raised by her grandmother, Dawn Sister Yellowbird. Both Joy's parents are dead. They both died from... alcohol abuse. Everyone believes their cross nationality marriage didn't turn out so well because Joy was born too early." he admitted reluctantly. "This information is from six years ago."

##Okay, Johnny. I'll get right on this. I'll say to the police that you were an anonymous tip called into the hospital. Lord knows enough people in the hallway and waiting room saw her rushed in here today to support that particular angle. Do you have the main contact number for your reservation? I'll call there myself asking for Dawn as an official emergency phone call on behalf of Joy.##

Johnny gripped the phone even more tightly. "Thanks, Dixie. It means lot to me to get her some more help as fast as possible. I guess it's because I know what it's like not to have any parents around. I was raised by my aunt. Home's in Florida. And the direct tribal council's number is.."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The tones went off twenty minutes later, and Roy noticed that Johnny was jumpier than a cat in a rainstorm when they did. He didn't say anything as he got behind the wheel and buckled in. He watched Johnny write down their response address as it came over the speaker grill. "You ready?" he asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Gage said, not meaning the upcoming rescue call.

##Station 51, Engine 36, Ladder truck 10. Vehicle over a cliff. Southbound 405 and Avenida at mile marker 16. Southbound 405 and Avenida at mile marker 16. CHP is on scene, reporting light smoke, with a single driver out : 0956. Copter two is en route as a new brush fire spotter.##

Chet and the others came running and they got into their turnout coats and boarded the engine. "Station 51, KMG 365." replied Mike Stoker, using an HT laying on his driver's seat.

Cap broke over Roy and Johnny's console radio on a private, truck to truck band. ##Maybe the hillside's still wet enough from all the rain we got last night. Once we get there, help lay down two inch and halves before getting into rappelling gear. Fire danger assessment's first if smoke's definitely showing.##

"10-4, Cap. Assure scene safety. " replied Gage as he fastened his helmet onto his head. "Has L.A. given you a victim update yet?"

##Not yet. Those officers are away from their bikes with their hands full. Their dispatch channel's been real quiet. The only word is that they're down a steep hill, close in, with the victim.##

"Okay. Thanks. Switching back to main." Johnny said, turning the radio back to L.A.'s active response channel for that part of the county.

Roaring into the growing white light of a storm clearing sky, Station 51 turned left to head down Wilmington Avenue towards its first freeway access ramp.

------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Roy looking worried in the vehicle bay.

Photo: Gage acting insistent in the garage.

Photo: Cap questioning in the kitchen.

Photo: Johnny on the payphone.

Photo: Dixie on the desk phone.

Photo: Station 51 pulling out.

Photo: Los Angeles County freeway.

From : patti keiper Sent : Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:48 AM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Moment of Gravity

Engine 51 was the first Ward on the scene. Engine 36, from their sister station along Wilmington Avenue, had not yet arrived.  
Cap stepped out of the cab and was immediately met by a highway patrol officer as Roy and Johnny, gathered, too, sliding into their duty turnouts. "What have we got?" DeSoto asked the CHiP lieutenant.

The highway patrolman said. "A green Chevy. Lost control and rolled about forty yards into the canyon. Better hurry. A fire's started and my partner and I haven't been able to get him out."

"All right. We'll take it from here." said Hank, peering over the grassy fringe of the embankment. The report about an active burn was no longer a hopeful myth. A white smoke column was growing far below,  
marking the place where the crashed car had come to rest.

"How bad is he?" Gage asked, completing his pulling anchor on a hose loop around an overgrown freeway hydrant station as Stoker pulled the engine forward to unravel two large lengths of double thickness brush hose.

"He's alive, but pinned in. Both doors are jammed. We haven't been able to get them open." replied Officer Jon Baker.

"Smells like the undercarriage is catching." said Chet as he rushed by with rappelling ropes to tie off on the engine's front bumper.

"It is." said Baker. "We tried to put it out but our fire extinguishers weren't big enough to finish the job before they ran out."

"Thanks for trying. Now get yourself and your partner out of there. You're not geared up to handle fire." said Hank.

Baker got on his hand held mic connected to his motorcycle and he called down the hill. "Seven Mary Three to Seven Mary Four. Pull out. The FD's here."

##In a bit! I think I almost got him free!## came a hasty reply with the full,  
angry sound of hungry flame crackles behind Frank Poncherello's voice.

Stanley frowned. He knew this particular highway patrol officer. And he knew the man's penchant for rescue recklessness. "Roy, Johnny. Go. That's Ponch. And he's not listening again. Get him out of there now. Then see what you can do for the driver with hand tools. We'll follow you down with our two lines as fast as we can."

Kelly darted to each of the paramedics and tied on life lines to their rope belts. "Cap, 36's is here. And I saw Truck 10 doing a U-turn northbound for our ramp."

"Okay, pal. Music to my ears. Grab Johnny's rope. I'll get DeSoto's." Cap ordered. Then he lifted his handy talkie. "L.A. Engine 51. Speed up all responding crews. The grass around our car has fully ignited. Send a full brush assignment to Topeka Canyon, mile marker 16."

##10-4. Wind direction is S.S.E. at twelve. Temperature is 82 F. Dewpoint is 64 F. Relative humidity at your location is 30 %## said L.A.

"Copy, on the update." Hank replied back. "I confirm your conditions."

Roy and Johnny never even heard Cap. They just flipped their descent ropes around the snags in the way as they hurried down the hill with a pry bar and axe for windshield shattering, and a pair of fire extinguishers they had snatched from the squad.

Johnny began shouting as they bounced downhill in a rapid rappel. "Hey! Poncherello! Back away from there! Didn't you hear Baker yelling at ya?!"

They got to the upside down car and found it fully aflame. Frank was tugging desperately on a car door, trying to shield his hands and face from the heat of the flames shooting up from the underside of the car's leaking oil line. "He's gonna burn if we don't open it now!" Frank replied urgently.

Roy shoved himself in front of Frank and forced the officer away with a firm backwards lean as he bit down with a long prybar into the hinge of the crushed driver's door. "We see that. Now get away from these sparks. Your uniform'll catch in seconds if you stay in this close. Go grab a stokes if you wanna help us."

"In a pico!" said Ponch, bounding up the hill. He pulled himself up rapidly along Johnny's taut rope.

Fire was rising along the car's underside, inching forward.  
Gage smashed the glass he could reach and he wormed his way inside the car quickly to reach their victim. The man started screaming when he felt the sharp heat of hot metal begin to sear the side of him that was still trapped under a twisted car seat and touching the door frame. He began to flail about, in a panic.

Johnny grabbed his face to hold him still after snuffing out the intense sparks that were landing on them both. Roy struggled at the door with the bar with all of his strength, working above them. "Just take it easy! We won't let that fire reach you!" Johnny promised.

The face bloodied, groggy older man in his grip just sagged, finally becoming quieter, moaning confusedly at the thought of actual rescue and from some overwhelming pain. He didn't even flinch when a sharp blast of carbon dioxide from Roy's extinguisher flooded in to cool the metal around him.

"Hey mister. Can you hear me? Where are you hurting the most?" Gage shouted loudly, holding the driver's shoulders protectively with his gloves. Johnny ducked sharply at every flame that licked inside their tiny crumpled space.

The man didn't reply and suddenly lapsed into unconsciousness.

At a particularly bad surge of fire, Johnny yelled aloud. "Agh! Roy, where are they?!"

"They're coming. I just got Stoker on the radio saying they're heading right for us." DeSoto shouted back. "This is stuck real good. I can't budge it!"

"Looks like we have no choice. Roy get down here. We'll pull him out through the windshield hole. He's free!" he grunted, pulling the man's legs straight from where they were folded.

A loud rumble of falling rock alerted them and the car lurched, suddenly teetering as a weak point in the storm loosened hillside gave way.

Johnny shot out of the burning car and to his feet. Panicking, they gripped the edge of the car as it oscillated sickeningly on a cliff edge they hadn't been aware was nearby because of the smoke. Desperately, they hung on to the automobile's frame until its unsteady motion stopped.

DeSoto gasped. "Now get him out! I'll stabilize this for as long as I can." he said, clinging to the steaming metal with his gloved hands.

Gingerly, Gage let go of the side. The car shifted slightly, but then it held,  
with only falling dirt to announce its precarious position on the hill.

Johnny scrambled, breathless, back into the car, this time getting in through the windshield that he had smashed open a few minutes earlier.

An incoherent shout from Roy gave him a warning he couldn't ignore.  
Gage grabbed their victim gracelessly by the collar and hauled backwards,  
straining, until his dead weight began to slide out into the tall grass that was slowly igniting all around them. Johnny grabbed the rest of the folded man as his upper half cleared the car into a bear hug under the arms, pulling with every ounce of muscle he had, first freeing his head, then his shoulders.

But in seconds, it happened. The car....fell.

Roy shouted in frustration and worry, as he leaped backwards into the clear, calling for his partner.

"I got him! We're over here!" Johnny yelled from a torn clump of towering pampas grass.

A hissing sound of covering water began as a charging Chet met them on the slope with his fire hose. "Oh, my gosh. Are you guys okay? We saw it go!"

"We're fine." gasped Roy, thoroughly exhausted as he crouched by Gage as they checked to see if the driver was still breathing. "I think."

"That guy must be pretty busted up inside after a tumble like that one, I'll bet."  
How is he doing?" Kelly asked as he redirected his stream to join Stoker's in combating the growing brush fire that had been started by the burning car.

Johnny didn't answer, feeling sick to his stomach. "Roy, I had to pull him hard. I had no choice."

"Worry about that later. If you hadn't, he would have been dead." DeSoto reassured him. "Cap? We need our stokes and spinal gear!" he yelled up hill.

"On the way. 36's bringing just the basics. I want the three of you out of here before things get out of hand even worse." Hank said about the raging brush fire.

Roy glanced up and into a wall of flame barely being held at bay by a double water curtain. "You don't have to tell me twice." he said wholeheartedly as he and Johnny worked carefully to straighten their limp victim into anatomical alignment enough for a guarded log roll to check for heavy bleeding.  
"He's still got a strong pulse." he told Stanley in an update.

Leaning over, Johnny inserted an oral airway into the man's mouth so he could breathe unimpended on his back. "Roy, he's got multiple fractures. Left arm,  
lower left leg, right arm. And I still don't think I've found them all."

"How's his head?" DeSoto asked, quickly tying off a blood stopper around a fast flowing wound on their patient's foot. He didn't ask the other questions that usually followed the first. They both knew that movement probably had already risked the man's spinal cord if it was injured anywhere along its length.

"No depressions. But he's got a deep bruise behind both ears." Johnny replied.

"Battle's sign?"

"Yeah." Gage said.

"Okay, let's get him outta here pronto." Cap gestured, shouting over the roar of the growing fire.

Marco, and a team from the other fire truck companies quickly immobilized the driver with a cervical collar, and longboard on top of an uninflated mast suit swiftly, so they could make good a strategic escape from the hillside fire that was beginning to blow fiercely with spreading thermal effects.

It quickly outgrew the two fire hoses.

"Everybody, let's get out of here on the double!" Cap ordered.  
"We're out of time."

-  
On the side of the freeway, Hank made for the biophone while a very sooty Chet ran to grab out the resuscitator, and other medical gear, for Roy and Johnny. Cars were already absent as the cordoned off section of the highway was buffered away from danger by the Highway Patrol.

Nearby, Ponch and Jon stood by their motorcycles and a semi they had shanghai'd into being a wind block for a flames created gale that was effecting the rescue squad site.

Far below, the fire continued to rage. But soon, its chaotic destruction was being met with swift water drops from two fire department choppers.

Captain Stanley spoke aloud into the phone receiver. "Rampart, this is Engine 51. How do you read?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Cap and Stoker peering downhill by the engine.

Photo: Roy and Johnny looking down into a canyon.

Photo: A CHiPs officer fighting to open a burning car.

Photo: Roy talking with a CHiP officer by the engine.

Photo: Officer Jon Baker, CHiP Highway Patrol Officer.

Photo: Johnny checking out a wounded driver.

Photo: Roy and Johnny fighting to hold a falling burning car.

Photo: Gage dragging away a wounded man in brush.

Photo: A threatening grass fire.

Photo: The gang long boarding a crash victim.

Photo: Cap on the biophone.

*  
From: "patti keiper" Date: Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:05 pm Subject: Ties That Bind..

##Go ahead, Engine 51.## said Dixie McCall from the hospital.

"Rampart, we've a male victim aged in his middle fifties. He's been extricated from a rollover crash over an embankment. Stand by for vital signs." said Stanley.

##I'm standing by, 51.## she replied.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rubbing her chin, Dixie thumbed a silver button on the wall to hail an operator on intercom. "Yes, this is Miss McCall in Emergency. Page a doctor to the base station. Stat. We've a multiple trauma case coming in. Thanks." she said.

A few seconds later, she heard her announcement read overhead as she moved Station 51's status board magnets to the 'on scene' square of the hot board.

##Dr. Brackett to Emergency at the base station. Dr. Brackett to Emergency at the base station. Stat.## said the operator.

Kel hurried to McCall's side a minute later, still in the scrubs he had worn for another procedure. "What is it, Dix? That sounded urgent."

"It is, Kel. A multiple trauma with 51's. They've got a man they've just rescued from an automobile after it tumbled down a cliff." she replied, handing him the time stamped notes she had begun.

Brackett made a face and a noise of sympathy. "Rough. Okay, I got this from here. Would you go meet Vince and sign some paperwork concerning the Yellowbird girl? There are some state agencies looking for her information.  
And nice job learning who she is. We had her medical records in our greedy little hands in no time at all." he grinned, as she turned to go out of the glassed in communications room. "How'd you manage it?"

"I got lucky. Someone decided to step forward despite getting a possible rap."

"Anybody she knows?" Kel asked.

Dixie hid her reaction, tightly. "Probably." she answered noncommittally as she closed the door behind herself without looking at him. Her evasion escaped him completely.

Brackett turned to wait for a reply back, leaning on his hands in anticipation.

-  
Roy DeSoto looked up from the blood pressure he was taking on the rescued driver. "It's down. 68 over 40. Get those mast trousers on. His pelvis and femurs aren't fractured." he ordered the gang hovering near him.  
"Cap, pulse is 46 and regular, respirations are shallow."

Poncherello stood watching Hank as he wrote down the vital signs Roy was relaying to him. "Any sign of alcohol?" he asked.

DeSoto looked up, startled. "What? Uh,..no. None."

"Well how about needle marks? He must have been on something if he crashed his car without even braking. There're no tire marks over there."  
he shrugged, pointing.

Gage lost his temper. "Listen, Ponch. I don't want to be rude or anything.  
But please stop interfering with our medical call. We'll try to get all the information everybody needs just as fast as we can. All right?"

"Sure. No problem. I thought I was helping out again. You know me."  
Frank smiled amicably, but then his smile disappeared. "How about looking for his wallet?"

"Later." said Roy, without turning around, quickly cutting away the man's shirt and pants for the team quickly fastening up the mast suit's velcro straps and stop cocks. "His back's clear, Johnny. I don't feel any dislocations."

Gage nodded, letting out the breath he was holding as he connected up the EKG monitor. "Let's keep on hoping. He's built like an ox." Then he leaned over and peered a light into the man's nose, eyes, ears and mouth around the airway and mask Marco was monitoring with suction. "There's cerebral spinal fluid in the right ear. It's staining yellow." he said, holding up the testing 4 X 4 he had used to clean up other cuts he had found on the man's head. "Pupil is dilated on that side and he's doll's eyes negative. They didn't track at all when we rolled him. He's ipsilateral."

"I'll get his lung sounds. Marco, is he breathing okay?" Roy asked.

"A bit slow. But his color's still good." Lopez answered.

"Watch for vomiting. He may have an occipital skull fracture." Roy told him.  
"Once the others get through pumping up that last chamber on the suit, go ahead and elevate the head of his longboard onto a gear box or something high. His brain's starting to swell. See how his eyes are getting swollen?"

"Yeah." Lopez replied, frowning. "What are his chances?"

"That'll depend on his surgeon and just how bad that crack in his head reacts inside. If he develops just an epidural hematoma, we're in luck. But if that bleeding's gone deeper, into the subdural layers.." his voice trailed off.

"I'll vent carefully once he needs it." Lopez promised, repositioning the demand valve over the man's mouth and nose a little tighter so he could draw in better breaths of pure oxygen on his own.

Gage quickly palpated the man's large sized abdomen and found a hot pulsing mass under his fingers just below the navel. "Whoa.. Roy. I think I got something else." Quickly, he motioned for the others to stop pumping up the mast suit.  
"I've found a huge triple A. Right here. I can feel it overlapping his spine right behind his liver." Reaching lower under the suit, Johnny quickly compared both of their patient's femoral pulses. "They're grossly different, Roy, by far."

Cap overheard the news about an unruptured aneurysm and sighed. "So he's no longer a flight candidate. Okay, cancelling the helicopter. L.A., this is Engine 51. Respond an immediate ambulance to our location. Our patient has been flight contraindicated and limited to ground transportation."  
he reported over HT.

##10-4. Mayfair is giving an E.T.A. of three minutes.## L.A. responded.

"Copy that." Hank answered. Then he looked up Johnny. "Is this why his pressure's so low with that skull fracture?"

Gage met his eyes grimly. "Yeah, he's hemorrhaging out somewhere. Either at his descending aorta inside a few membranes or around the sites of his limb fractures. His shock right now, is probably saving his life. Such a large AAA that's leaky or having a basal skull fracture alone, is usually bad enough to kill someone in a few hours. But having both these problems..."

"Keep breathing, man." said Poncherello, crouching by the driver's head. "You've got your kids to live for." he said, passing over the wallet his partner had just located on the hillside in a fast search. The medical history card inside listed hypertension as one of the man's pre-existing conditions.  
He tossed the photo section open and the firefighters winced when they saw pictures of a three year old boy, and his six or seven year old brother, playing baseball in a yard, along with a portrait of the driver's wife. "Now you know why I was hurrying so badly down there. I saw a baseball glove in the back seat." he glared at Johnny.

Gage nodded a silent apology, stunned at the reality of a young family,  
still waiting at home for their husband and father.

Hank grabbed Roy's notes and got on the phone, quickly. "Rampart. Vital signs are.." and he listed off those and his paramedics' medical findings, one by one as fast as he could relay them. "...and Rampart, he has a Glasgow coma scale rating of three." Stanley concluded.

Dr. Brackett responded. ##Okay, 51. Everything we're going to do will be strictly preventative. Start a large bore I.V. of normal saline, TKO. If his pulse rate remains below sixty beats per minute, inject 0.5 mgs atropine I.V. push. And if his intracranial pressure rises significantly, with an onset of Cushing's syndrome,  
administer lidocaine 1.0 mg/kg slow IVP to counteract his ICP immediately. Premedicate him for a rapid sequence intubation. Use Etomidate, at 0.3 mg/kg IVP and have someone apply a Sellick maneuver while you intubate. If your tube placement is confirmed and the patient shows signs of increasing consciousness, administer 2 mg's midazolam in slow increments to sedation, then use 0.1 mg/kg vercuronium to regain paralysis. We'll have mannitol and Lasix standing by pre-surgery. Monitor his vitals signs, heart rate and overall reactivity and give me a new update every five minutes in transit. Also use the standard dose of phenobarbital if he starts developing seizure activity.##

Hank faithfully recounted Kel's orders to his paramedics, word for word. And soon,  
all preparations and necessary care, were provided.

Jon Baker looked up. "Traffic's still real bad out there. It's just past the lunch rush."  
he said to Captain Stanley. "How about we provide an escort for your ambulance?  
He'll get there faster by whole minutes if we lead the way. Cars are used to yielding to us." he said as his partner cracked his leather gloved knuckles in emphasis.

"Of course they are. You're their ticket writers." Hank grinned. "All right. Let's load him up." Cap said to everyone working over the man as the Mayfair rig finally arrived from an off ramp. Ponch was so worried about the driver, that he helped carry the stretcher himself over to the open doors.

-  
Brackett and Dr. Early met 51 at the entrance. "Okay, Carol, skip the CT scan.  
He's going right into surgery for that dissecting aneurysm. I want a type and cross, for whole blood and a full skull series while he's getting prepped."

"Right away, doctor." said Ms. Evans.

Reluctantly, the dusty Squad 51 pair finally let go of his stokes and longboarded gurney as orderlies took over and handed them back their oxygen and ekg equipment. One of them spoke. "We'll wash off your board and stokes and leave them by the entrance in about a half an hour once he's cleared on X-ray."

Nearby, the two highway patrol officers watched them soberly as they traded information and updates. Finally, the pass-off happened between the paramedics and the hospital staff.

"Is there any hope for him at all, doc?" Johnny asked Kel as the doctor rapidly turned to follow the driver's bed. Dr. Early stayed by the man's head, assessing his breath sounds and the endotracheal tube's placement as they hurried away.

"A slight chance. If any. As you know, patients with basilar skull fractures are also very likely to get meningitis, an infection a man in his condition probably wouldn't be able to survive. I give him, maybe two chances in ten that he'll still be alive by morning. After that..." Kel trailed off. "Excuse me, gentlemen, I'm off to guarantee that he'll have those odds even as they are, regardless."

"Of course. Don't let us delay anything." Johnny mumbled, stunned.

The worried doctor disappeared through the surgical doors after his trauma team and they soon shut behind him.

-  
It was Vince's voice in quiet discussion with Officers Baker and Poncherello that distracted Roy and Johnny where they mulled over cold cups of tasteless coffee in the cafeteria.

They couldn't help but overhear the conversation.

"So she's got a clean M.O.? No crimes?" asked Ponch of Vince Howard.

"That's right. Joy's rare that way as far as runaways go. And she tested negative for drug or alcohol abuse. So that's why we've placed her in the camp retreat up north until her grandmother comes to pick her up. There's minimal police presence there but enough security to keep her from getting away again." Howard admitted.

Johnny's face twisted into an unidentifiable emotion as he spoke aloud. "She was bored. And feeling useless. I mean there are no jobs back at home to take for summer work. And school's out until fall." he said softly. "Summer's always a bad time when you're on the reservation."

But it was enough to be heard by the highway patrolman.

Ponch startled. "Mr. Gage. Do you know Joy Yellowbird?"

"I do. She was a friend. A kid I knew once."

Ponch didn't know what to do, ..smile reassuringly or stay completely serious. So he just spoke softly. "I've signed up to be her Big Brother in the state chaperone program. But if you have any problems with that I can always.."

"I don't." said Gage, still not turning around. "In fact, getting to know someone in authority might be a very good idea in this stage of the game. I know I appreciated getting a mentor like that when I was her age."

"All right." said Frank. "Do you want me to tell her you're around?"

"No, I'll do that myself. I know where to find her."

"Things have changed a little since you were a teenager." said Jon.  
"The retreat's now at a camp, in the mountains above Station 110,  
near the river."

"What's the name of the place?" Johnny said.

"Elders Field Retreat. It's non denominational."

"It would have to be." murmured Johnny. But then he turned around and regarded Frank with a sober expression and he slowly offered his hand to shake. "Thanks for looking out for her,.. officially. Unofficially,  
you'll probably be a better friend than I ever was while she was growing up." And with that, Johnny left the room, heading for the squad.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ponch asked Roy.

"I don't know. But I'm sure as h*ll going to find out." said DeSoto.  
"Give me that address of yours, okay? I want it, too. She was a patient of ours not too long ago."

"Here you go." said Baker, offering up a business card from his uniform's pocket. "The address is on the back. And a phone number. The camp director's named Millie, an ex judge, retired. She'll allow a visitor for Joy only if she wants one first."

"Has she been discharged from the hospital?" DeSoto asked.

"Yes, a half an hour ago for an overnight stay at the retreat's clinic. She left for the camp with Bonnie Clark, one of my officer co-workers from the department." Baker replied.

"Can I speak with her for a moment?" asked Roy.

"Sure. Call that second number at the bottom. That's hers. We'll be over here, out of earshot." said Jon, drawing Ponch away from the phone on the wall that Roy was regarding seriously.

Slowly, Roy DeSoto picked up the receiver, dialed the woman police officer, and asked her about Joy Yellowbird's state of mind.

-  
Photo: Man getting hooked up on an EKG.

Photo: Dixie answering a base station call.

Photo: Dixie talking to Dr. Brackett.

Photo: Johnny, Roy, Dixie and Brackett talking in the hall.

Photo: Vince at Rampart.

Photo: CHiPs Baker and Poncherello on motorcycles.

Photo: A Mayfair and the squad arriving at Rampart's back entrance.

Photo: Ponch and Jon, CHiPs officers, looking serious, inside.

Photo: Roy on a payphone.

Photo: CHiPs cruiser officer Bonnie Clark on a phone.

*  
From : patti keiper Sent : Sunday, August 19, 2007 4:17 PM Subject : Windows Of The Soul..

"Hey, Joy. I really believe you're gonna like it here. Just look at the view! And the air. Take a deep breath. Isn't it beautiful?"  
asked Bonnie Clark of her legal charge as they left the squad car to enter the main lodge of the state run foster camp.

Joy Yellowbird flung her duffle bag on the floor and eased herself onto the porch sofa. She let out a huge sigh and winced at the still continuing sting of aches in her muscles and chest from her ordeal of the night before. "If you say so, Officer Clark." said the quiet teenager. "So Roy said that Johnny was coming? For sure?"

"Joy. I can't guarantee the actions of a man whom you claim is your friend, just based on hearsay." Bonnie insisted softly, setting down her folder about Joy.

"Is it because you've read that I have a record a mile long in my files?"

Bonnie chided her gently and tried to touch her shoulder reassuringly.  
"You've committed no big awful crimes. At least not technically.  
I wouldn't call running away a felony, but it is a continuing problem. Especially for your grandmother."

"I don't want to talk to her." said Yellowbird fiercely.

"You don't have to. At least, not today." Bonnie smiled gently. "Today is for regrouping and healing. There's a nurse coming shortly who'll make sure you're still doing fine. Then we'll check you into your cabin that you'll be sharing with the other girls who will be coming to join you tomorrow afternoon."

Yellowbird's eyes glittered defensively.  
"So when's my next session with a shrink? I keep telling everybody that I wasn't trying to kill myself. I was tired from walking so far from the bus station. I only fell asleep outside the fire station by accident.  
I wasn't even sure I was even at the right one." she insisted. "And I didn't want to embarrass myself by asking my stupid question of those inside right away. Just picture what they would have thought seeing me at the door asking for Johnny Kaulope Bear. I didn't want to get him into any trouble." Joy began to study her small, journey scraped hands, fidgetting. Her face betrayed nothing of her conflicting, vulnerable emotions, at least, not openly. But then a little of her bravado, cracked, and she slumped lower into the cushions.

Bonnie smoothed back Joy's long black hair in a mothering way.  
"We know you aren't dangerous to yourself. That's why you've been brought here, Joy. Nothing in your evaluation demonstrates anything alarming except for the fact that you're growing up and seeking some roots of your own."

Joy sighed and coughed deeply, splinting her ribs, from the soreness there.  
"It's not easy being a half blood. Especially back at home. I just needed to talk to someone who's like me who understands what I'm going through." Yellowbird said urgently. "Grandmother keeps telling me to not think about it so much.  
But she can't see how everyone treats me. She's gets blind sometimes in more than just her eyes. I felt so alone, I couldn't stand it."

"So that's it. Roy told me Johnny Gage mentioned you were from his reservation."  
said the lady officer.

"He changed his name?" Yellowbird asked incredulously, disappointed. She grew bitter. "What? Don't tell me he's afraid of the color of his skin, too, living out here away from the People." she said angrily.

"That isn't it at all, Joy. Unlike you, Johnny had a record as a juvenile delinquent.  
I know. I used to ferry him around from place to place whenever he was in department custody. He changed his name as a sign of finally taking on a new life. And his first break, was the fire department, eight years ago."

Joy's eyes finally twinkled. "So, what did he do that was so bad? Can you talk about that?"

Bonnie grinned widely. "No. I'm pretty sure I want to leave divulging that part, up to Johnny himself. I respect his past and his privacy. I have to.  
Just like I'm protecting you now from your own nosy tribal Elders. They don't need to know all your details other than the fact that you're all right and located safely."

"I'm a disgrace to them."

"How? They were worried about you. Enough to notify us that you were missing after Nurse Dixie McCall contacted them. Doesn't that count for anything?" Bonnie wondered.

"The leaders were doing that to preserve Grandmother's honor. Having a disobedient child is a black mark that stains a parent publicly, whenever it is witnessed, in their eyes."

"Then why do you keep running away?" Clark asked quietly, holding Joy's hands.

"Because I'm hurting. He- he suddenly went away." she declared, tears finally rising. "After he promised me."

"Who promised you? Was it Johnny?" Bonnie guessed.

Sobbing, Joy Yellowbird fell into Bonnie's arms miserably, and nodded yes.

-  
Johnny Gage was with his prayer sack, praying in the bunkroom.

Roy DeSoto was taken by surprise when he saw his partner occupied in something obviously religious. But his worry and concern finally made him intrude enough to disturb Gage's solitude. So he picked up his laundry basket full of the gang's clean uniforms and walked over to his own bunk, to fold them. He had sorted out all the different sizes when he finally spoke. "I'm here if you want to talk about it."

"I don't want to talk about it." Gage said instantly, still fiddling with the beads on the bag in his hands. "At least, not until we get up there to see her for ourselves. I'm... inviting you to come along with me when we get off in a few minutes. At times like these, it's kind of nice having a best friend to fall on when something ugly from the past finally catches up to you."

Roy merely nodded, not saying anything even though he was burning up with curiosity about everything that might have gone on between Johnny and the young Yellowbird girl. "I'll go. You don't even have to ask." DeSoto smiled.

"Thanks." Johnny said, without looking up at him from where he was sitting cross legged on the bunk. He put the prayer sack back inside of his uniform shirt with reverent respect. Then he rose to his feet and left the room.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Native American grandmother and granddaughter.

Photo: CHiPs Bonnie Clark, taking notes.

Photo: A young American Indian teen, outside.

Photo: A feather divider bar.

Photo: A beaded divider bar.

Photo: An Indian prayer sack.

Photo: Roy and Johnny talking in the bunk room.

*  
From : patti keiper Sent : Thursday, August 23, 2007 6:19 PM Subject : The Dawn Warbler.. Dixie McCall left Kiowa cabin at Elders Field in the police and firefigher run state retreat for runaways. The teen camp was privately nestled in a rich stand of a sequoia redwood tree forest within eyeball view of Station 110, located along the highway, on the beach by the ocean.

Immediately Johnny Gage met her on the porch and started asking questions. "How's she doing?I- I mean. Is she still in pain?"

"Very little if any of the physical kind right now." she admitted honestly. "She's sleeping." said McCall, putting back her stethoscope into her nurse's carry bag. She specifically angled on not reporting her patient's current medical condition, going for a distraction instead by addressing the emotional one that had brought Joy Yellowbird to Los Angeles, feeling lost and alone. "And that's the best thing for her right now despite having such a devoted pair of visitors. Bonnie's in there with her right now with her in case she needs anything. I gave her one of the sleeping pills Dr. Brackett ordered for her. She'll probably sleep out the rest of the night."

Johnny frowned, still nervous, worked up. "You what?" he exclaimed, not believing. He finally stood on the top of the pinewood stairs and hung his head, hands on hips. "Okay, thanks." he finally said, visibly wrestling with the weight of a very old emotional ghost that they could see was suddenly bogging him down.

To Roy's eyes, it was a stress Johnny did not carry well. And DeSoto knew Johnny's mood wouldn't improve while he still held out on what was bothering him on the whole deal concerning himself and Joy. ::But I'm a very patient man like I am, a paramedic. I'll just wait him out. He'll talk about her soon, I think.:: he thought.

DeSoto changed the subject, knowing the golden value of deflection whenever he found his partner letting himself get into a funk. "Say, Dixie,  
when was the last time you were out in the Great Outdoors like this? I can't remember ever seeing you getting away from it all. The air's pure pine. Take a deep breath. Isn't it terrific?"

"If you say so, Roy." she rubbed an itchy nose. "Frankly, I'd rather find a comfortable hammock somewhere and let a coma take full control of my body. My allergies are flaring up. And I worked a double yesterday." Dixie shared.

"Ouch." Roy mumbled in sympathy.

Johnny finally stopped pacing, only half listening to their conversation.  
"To dream about home I suppose." he guessed, looking up at Dixie.

McCall smirked. "Yep. I've two very good doctor friends there attached to the largest supply of anihistamine known to man. And I plan on rubbing their elbows about it, as soon as I get back to Rampart with my followup report on Joy." She grimaced, locking her knees as a huge sneeze rocked her almost off of her feet. Roy and Johnny both grabbed her by the arms to steady her, handing her a twin pair of handkerchiefs from their shirt pockets. Dixie accepted one of the cotton offerings, miserably. "Oh, pine pollen's the worst." she sniffled. She used one, heftily. Then she pocketed it. "You don't want this back. I've gotten my mascara all over it. I'll buy you a new one. Soon."

"Forget it. I've plenty." Roy smirked. "Both my kids share the same affliction. Try to relax a little, maybe that'll help. Say, Johnny, we could always go for a walk and check out the sunset from the ridge." he tempted.

"Nope. I'm staying right here." Johnny said firmly, parking his jeaned butt onto the pine log swing hanging from the porch roof. "Dixie's idea of a nap sounds just perfect. I've a lot on my mind that I have to think about. And.. and...and you already know I only slept a couple of hours last night because of the rain storm. I'm actually tired all of the sudden." he said, stretching out awkwardly on the swinging seat as he covered his eyes with one plaid shirt sleeved arm. "I really want my bunk."

DeSoto's eyebrows rose as he chuckled. "Come on, stop being such a stick in the mud. Let's go find the stream and do a little fishing. We're finally in the middle of nowhere again with no phone, no electricity... well at least in this cabin anyways. And no Chet Kelly for Pete's sake. And there you are, wanting to take a snooze in order to dream about being back home at the station. Besides, after Dixie leaves, I'd sure enjoy your company so you can point out all the hidden fishing holes using your instincts honed by living on the reservation." he added, offering once again to be an ear. "I'm still too city slicker to manage it."

Snores met this touching speech. Roy was snapped out of the spell the vibrant sunset held over him. He looked down and laughed. As did Dixie. Gage had pulled his fishing cap over his eyes and he wasn't pretending to be asleep.

McCall threw up her hands, realizing that getting Johnny to unload his mysterious emotional baggage, as least for that day, was a futile effort. She gave up trying for both Roy and herself dramatically. "All right, all right. So you wanna be a clam. Okay. Fine. We can live with that. No doubt Roy'll be back with a humongous brownie for your supper before too long. Maybe food'll soften you up. Sweet dreams, Johnny." she said, departing and heading for her sports car that was parked in the red rock gravel parking lot down the path. "See you later, Roy. Call if she needs anything." she gestured at the cabin window.

"I will." promised DeSoto, grinning, watching her get inside the car to turn the ignition.

Once Dixie had gone, Roy finished unpacking his and Gage's overnight things into the main lodge's two lone guest rooms. He grabbed a fishing pole, and soon, he was hiking down to the rock strewn stream a quarter of a mile into the valley, under what little light remained of the day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A cold shiver drove sleep away from Johnny's eyes. The smell of smoke frying fillets coming from the lodge across from the cabin wrung a growl of hunger out from deep within. He peered out between cracked lids. "Night already? Roy, why didn't you wake me up?" he said aloud.

DeSoto stepped out of the nearby main entrance of the lodgehouse with a steaming pan of freshly caught trout. "Oh, hi sleepyhead. I was going to in a minute. But I had to flip these first." he held up the skillet and pointed to it with a mitted hand and spatula. "They're ready."

Gage stretched uneasily as his private nervousness returned fully. He tried to yawn.

A piercing stare from his chum caught Johnny with his guard down. There was no backing off. "Okay. Okay. You've succeed in making me feel guilty." he sighed. "Got anything left that has to be done around here?"

Roy smiled broadly. "That's mighty big of you to offer, junior. As a matter of fact, yes, I do. We need some firewood. Not only for Joy's cabin. But for the lodge fireplace, too." said Roy, peering out into the dark forest.

"Now?!" Johnny asked.

"Sure. You asked, and I accepted." Roy beamed. He paused for emphasis,  
"..but I saved you a heck of a lot of trouble by cutting some dead poplar tree limbs down for you. They're about twenty yards down the same path that I took to get to the stream."

Gage grumbled indignantly as he started marching irritatedly out into the night.

DeSoto spoke aloud. "Ah...Johnny?" Roy called out after him."The axe is in the outhouse." he said, pointing.

Johnny winced, only barely hesitating in his stride before storming off.

Roy's twinkling eyes were hidden in the enveloping darkness.  
The wind had been building slightly, little by little through the course of a few hours. Now, a huge bolt of lightning flashed as dry thunder cracked and a gale force gust of wind suddenly began twisting the tree tops in the pine tree canopy above their heads.

DeSoto recovered first from his startled reaction and he teased. "Better hurry,  
or you'll get wet." He ducked back into the sanctuary of the warm lodge before Gage could retort back.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Aghhh!" A sopping wet Johnny blurted out in disgust as he entered Joy's cabin through the screened door with a bundle of split logs.

A raised finger, abandoning a fork a over steaming dinner plate, greeted him, and it shot over a pair of pursed lips. "Shh!" Bonnie hissed. "Quiet or you might wake her up. She cried herself out only a few minutes ago."

That brought Johnny up short and the expression on his face went from annoyance to one of vulnerability in an instant. "S-she did?" The room got so quiet, the others could hear the water dripping off of Johnny's face onto the floor. Sobered, he abandoned his pile of wood and got busy lighting a fire in the fireplace across the room. "What was she talking about?" he asked in a small voice.

Before the highway patrol officer could reply, Roy stepped out of the bathroom,  
dabbing shaving cream on his neck and chin. "How's the weather looking out there?"

"It's shaping up into a repeat showing of last night." Gage replied, grabbing a kitchen towel to dry off his hair and most of his skin.

"Oh, yeah?" DeSoto remarked.

Clark left her fish and peeked out the window. "It certainly isn't the typical autumn shower out there. That's for sure. I'll go make sure the generator's gonna stay working for us in the lodge." She grabbed her raincoat, and left.

Roy went over to the door and opened it a crack after she was gone. The sight was enough to make him gape in disbelief. The massive hundred foot sequoias were swaying and the younger trees at their bases were bowed low to the ground under the onslaught of a hurricane force straight line wind. It took considerable strength to shut it again. He latched it snugly, but left the door window ajar so they could see when Bonnie returned.

Gage went pale and he hurried over to the door when a tree branch began thumping loudly on the roof over their heads. He leaned against the door as if their lives depended on it. A growing expression of worry filled his face.

Roy eyeballed him, surprised at his reaction. "What's wrong?"

"We've got to leave."

"What?" Now it was Roy's turn to disbelieve. "Well, why? How come?"

"I didn't tell Station 110 that the four of us were up here a night early." Johnny sighed, annoyed at himself. "I forgot to do it. And I told Bonnie to skip that step, too, saying that I'd take care of it before we.. even...came." he trailed off, swallowing dryly.

"Oh, Johnny." DeSoto moaned in irritation. 'How could you do something so stupid?"

"Geez, Roy. I apologize. I apologize wholeheartedly. So if you want to blame somebody. Go ahead and blame me. It seems I have to apologize to the whole world anyway for not becoming Joy's adopted brother, too, when I said I would."

Johnny tried to take back the words he had just spoken, but it was too late.  
Raw hurt stung him openly and he crumpled into a chair, his elbow knocking over a salt shaker that had been sitting near Bonnie's plate. Neither firefighter even noticed it. Carefully, Gage covered the police woman's meal with the serving pot's lid, to keep it warm.

Roy didn't move and even the growing storm fell quiet in those seconds.

Suddenly, Gage's eyes filled with unshed tears. "So now you know." he whispered, tortured. "I guess I'm to blame for almost killing her, too."

"No, Johnny." DeSoto said instantly. "That's not true."

Gage visciously held up a hand. "Just..just hear me out, Roy. Just shut up, and listen. I'm.. at...fault. For ALL of it. If I had just done what I promised to do when I turned eighteen, she never would have tried to find me like she tried to do today." he said, frightened. "What kind of friend just turns their back like that? Huh? I've never done that to anyone else." he cried. "When did I change, Roy? Was it when my parents died together, too, like Joy's did?" and he turned away, thoroughly grieved. His shoulders began to rock with a silent sobbing at the painful remembrance of their passing. "All Joy reminded me of afterwards...was death and loneliness. She's why I left the reservation so young. I had to get away from that." he cried.

Roy's stunned look disappeared completely and he went over to his partner and he knelt, gripping Gage's shoulder in soft support, not saying anything at all at first.  
But then he got practical. "Shhh, it's out. It can't hurt you any more. And in the morning, you can talk to Joy and explain why you left in the same way you've just told me. With honesty. Joy's old enough to understand just about anything. She's almost an adult okay?"

Gage studied his hands, still not looking at Roy, but he didn't shrug off his touch either.

DeSoto started analyzing their other situation. "We're about seven miles from the fire station, right?"

Johnny nodded again, staring at Joy's closed bedroom door. "There abouts." he agreed, wiping his face on a sleeve quickly.

"No problem then. We'll get to the lodge and make a quick phone call from the candy and bait counter."

The branches thumped again, making Johnny jump as each thud made him remember the sight of Joy's nearly dead face lying in the grass that he kept living and reliving over and over again in his head.

Roy made sure he met his eyes. "Hey, it's only a thunderstorm. This cabin's been here for years and storms never hurt it before. I highly doubt that one's gonna hurt us now. Those redwoods out there have been standing for thousands of years."  
he quipped, eyeballing the sputtering fire in the fireplace that Johnny had started.

The walls started shifting violently under the rafters as the wind picked up. Air borne water threatened to get into the cracks around the tiny wooden paned windows.

The power suddenly cut off when the generator quickly failed next door in the lodge at another sudden deafening crack of thunder and accompanying lightning.

DeSoto spoke. "But I agree with you. I don't like this one at all. That bolt probably just took out the telephone and power poles." he said, reaching into the wood box to pile more wood onto the rug to dry for later fuel use.

Bonnie struggled through the door again, her hair wild and dripping.  
"The whole camp's power's completely gone. And lightning must have shorted out my squad car's power/tran, because it won't even turn over. Same goes for the radio. But I still remember the tour from the last time I was here. There's a CB radio in the bedroom closet."

Their potential crisis broke Gage out of his raw state and he got to his feet, starting to check for safety gear. "I used to build those. Count me as the communications man."  
"Does it work?" Roy asked Clark.

"Sure, I tested it then by putting in the nine volt from the lantern that's under the sink." she replied cheekily, still thinking like the police officer she was.

"Is there anything else useful around here?" Roy asked her.

"In the medicine cabinet in the john there's some wire and electrical tape.  
The counselors probably use that hooked up to the lightning rod for better reception as an antennae for the TV set. We could do the same thing to boost a radio signal if things get any worse up here." she decided.

Gage nodded quickly, keeping an eye on the sky around them.  
"I'll go get that. Uh, Roy, could you go get that radio? I don't want to disturb Joy at all. Not yet anyway." Johnny said.

"Okay." said DeSoto. "I'll be right back. I won't wake her."

"It's dark, so let's meet at the kitchen table." Bonnie decided. "Let's plan our getting out over there near the fire."

Both firefighters agreed. They split up to make preparations while Bonnie put all of their still uneaten food away into an insulated cooler to keep it fresh.

Outside, the trees began to groan under the fury of the storm.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy and Johnny were towelling off the dishes Bonnie was washing and handing to them while they discussed how the C.B. radio could be boosted into a greater range so it could reach L.A.'s repeater tower using the odds and ends laying around the cabin.

"And that's all there is to it?" Roy asked Johnny.

"Yep. It's as simple as that. I'm all done here." he said, indicating the empty sink and rack. "So I'll get started with it while you finish up." Gage dried his hands. He started whistling a haunting native tune softly while he gathered the tools they needed from the hallway closet.

"All right. Bonnie and I are going out to try the squad car's radio again. We'll be right back." said DeSoto.

There was a brief howl of wind as the two of them left the cabin in their raincoats, but then it was over.

A quiet cough and blanket rustling behind a closed door reassured Johnny on Joy's continued resting state. She wasn't worrying about the elements and so neither would he.

All of a sudden, there was a loud sustained cracking sound coming from somewhere outside. The sound was different from the ones Johnny and the others had gotten themselves used to hearing that were being caused by the storm and he looked up reflexively.

Gage slowed his rummaging around in closet boxes as he paused and listened to it, only half paying attention to what he was doing. In the kitchen,  
a sharp movement from the far window caught Johnny's eye. It was something mottled, and roughly reddish brown, moving in the storm's intermittent light.  
He froze in cold terror when he realized what it must be. One of the tall sequoias immediately next to the cabin had snapped like a toothpick in the gale and was falling directly over the roof. Gage was paralyzed for several agonizing seconds before..

"Joy! Look out in there! A tree's fall-----"

CRASSHHH. The roof bowed grotesquely under the massive trunk, swaying as rain and debris broke through a hole tearing open above him. Johnny dimly prayed in those seconds it would somehow hold as he ran for the bedroom door desperately. Showers of roofing tiles and wood splinters spilled through a growing rend in the ceiling as tons of weight bore inexorably down. Dust and rain, blinded him. Then the main support rafters gave way and all he knew, was blackness.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were whirling sensations; random flashes of color soon after, then sounds. Johnny stirred. What were those sounds? Cool, liquidy echoes,  
were filling a small room that he didn't immediately recognize. ::Water:  
Gage thought. He opened his eyes to a semi-lit world.

Pain made him shiver. Johnny looked down muzzily at his legs to see a waist sized pine branch lying on top of them. He shifted his weight a trifle, still coming to consciousness. ::No, I'm not trapped too badly.:: some part of him thought. He was sitting, scraped and upright, in about two inches of rain water. Johnny dug the mud away from his knees and freed himself easily. A fire flashed in his head as full recollection returned. ::The others!:: "Joy?! Can you hear me?!" he cried out. ::She's nearby. This is the bedroom, isn't it?::

In the jumble of what was left of the cabin, Johnny couldn't find clear landmarks.  
There was no reply. In intense pain from a broken leg and wrenched pelvis, Johnny dragged himself through the debris, towards where he could see a bed. "Joy! Answer me!" Loose pine branches and shattered rafters blocked the only way past a collapsed wall between him and twisted blankets. Nausea made him ill right then and he lost a stomach battle. He cried out in frustration and tore through the twigs and boards, ignoring the heightened pain in his leg. He could feel two bone ends grate sickeningly on a simple fracture there, deep inside. Johnny crossed the last of them and saw Joy lying face down in the water, motionless.

::Not again. Please..:: Johnny begged mentally. Dreading the worst, he gently turned her over. A quick check proved she still had a carotid but the breaths being drawn in were very irregular and shallow. Putting an ear to Joy's chest, Gage heard thick rasping, bubbling sounds where there should have been none.  
::She must have breathed a lot of water into her lungs after being knocked unconscious.:: he realized. ::Her color's turning.:: Stiffening against pain, he pulled the girl to a sitting position in front of him and wrapped his arms around Joy's waist in a snug bearhug. He applied pressure, gradually increasing the strength of his clearing attempts when her breathing suddenly began to weaken and stop. "Come on." he pleaded, keeping each careful modified heimlich thrust effective.

A few seconds later, Joy choked and a flood of frothy rain water welled up out of her nose and mouth. She gasped through her unconsciousness and started sharply drawing in huge lungfuls of air as he laid her head lay back across his shoulder. "That's more like it." he grunted triumphantly. Soon after she had pinked up again, he moved to lay her back down onto the tree boughs, gently supporting her head and neck. Joy continued to breathe strongly.

Gage rested his head against the large tree trunk that had destroyed the cabin bedroom and leaned on his elbows, giving in to gratitude as Joy started to cough up more water easily. He gathered strength for a minute or two. Then he turned her onto her side to allow for the rest of the water to drain out. Finding himself suddenly shaking, he blew on his hands to warm them and then he started to search for the medical kit he had seen in the closet before the tree fell. He found it intact a few feet away under some wooden planks. He began calling. "Roy! Bonnie! We're in the bedroom!" he gasped. "Hey! We're in--" he broke off as a spasm from his leg silenced him. The passing storm was still loud. No one would hear shouting at all, Johnny realized. Joy and himself would have to wait for rescue when it finally came. He hoped that his partner and Bonnie had the foresight to take his Rover with them down to the beach to summon help from the firestation.

He pulled one of Joy's limp hands into his own. "Okay, we'll get things started on my end, then." he told her and he went to work patching up cuts and lacerations. Joy was clear of any obvious injuries past very minor ones beyond her P.E. and somehow Johnny managed to get her onto a dry surface on top of a tipped over dresser. He got her warmed up with fresh blankets and he splinted his fractured lower leg as best he could. Shock had taken its toll from the both of them. But Joy was in the worst condition. Johnny pulled out the kit's penlight and looked at her eyes. They were sluggish, but equal, due to her clear concussion, but they continued to remain reactive, refuting the hypoxic brain damage he thought she might have suffered from near drowning.

A deep cut marked the place of concussion and blood flowly freely. This Johnny wiped away and stopped with some butterfly strips. And he did a makeshift job on taping up the few cracked ribs he could feel on her right side. Gage wasn't worried about those at all. There was no blood in her mouth. He was worried about his own condition. Fever was already setting in and his leg had swelled up like a balloon in spite of his elevating it up high onto the tree trunk.  
It was a simple, but bad break most likely, that had inflamed a lot of nerves.  
The pain was intolerable when he moved just inches.

But Gage knew that he had to get his radio going as a firm back up to whatever his partner and Bonnie were doing in going for additional help.

A half an hour later, he checked on Joy's condition one more time before making a decision. Her breathing and pulse had stabilized enough to be trusted alone so Johnny got painfully to his feet, using a nearby fallen wall. He became woozy and almost passed out before he tightened his stomach muscles to fight it off.

A few minutes later, Gage was hobbling around, gathering up the equipment he sought for the CB radio and slowly he got to work using the lantern Bonnie had told him about. He located the grounding rod and found that it was still standing along the chimney it had been bolted to. A few screws turned here and wires twisted there and the task was finally complete. Johnny held his breath and turned the power on. High pitched whistles and active static greeted him, then it suddenly threatened to go dead. Deftly he adjusted the selection dial to Channel Nine and the open signal quieted and steadied itself. He changed the fine tune to maximum and waited before he attempted to key up the microphone.

Voices from emergency vehicles and DeSoto's own voice, hailing him from Station 110's rescue squad, made him smile. ::So they got there okay. That's cool. Real cool, man.:: he thought as he exhaled loudly as he stared at the glowing radio, smiling. He had done it. Quickly, he offered them an update on himself,  
the cabin, and Joy. He was still sitting there at the kitchen table, in a fog, long after Roy said that they were on their way, when the sound of weak coughing issuing from the other room, brought him wide awake. Favoring his leg tremendously,  
Johnny got into the bedroom as fast as possible.

Joy was beginning to come to. Johnny sat on the edge of the dresser's side where she lay under thick blankets and he felt her pulse as her eyes fluttered open. He grinned at her, while he held her muddy face gratefully with his other hand. "Chehuntamo, Lakni-Paci. I'm here, Little Sister. It's me, Kaulope. You're going to be okay." he smiled. "Don't be scared. I promise, I'm not going to run away from you any more."

Joy began to cry as her broken heart finally felt the warm healing touch of Johnny's fierce caretaker spirit on her skin, at last. She weakly reached for his monitoring fingers on her wrist and then she didn't let go. "I heard you scream; the storm.." she sobbed.

"Both over, it's morning, see?" Johnny pulled the curtain aside that was near them.

A brilliant sun rose from behind the tall pine trees. Joy squinted against the glare.  
Then she noticed the chaos lying all around them. "What's that tree doing in here?"

Gage smirked, wincing a little. "It fell on us."

Joy attempted to sit up. "You're hurt." she said, but a stab of pain caused her to stop and catch her breath. He caught her and helped her back onto the tree boughs.

"Don't move. You've banged a few ribs, among other things." he said, wrapping a BP cuff around Joy's arm.

Joy's eyes studied his face in great detail. "I'm no longer in pain." she told him, and she didn't mean the kind afflicting her body. "So you are a healer. Grandmother says you were gifted that way, even when you were a little boy." she said.

"I'm a paramedic, not a doctor. At best, I'm a remote control healer, listening to the real one." he grinned sheepishly, jerking a thumb at the murmuring radio still chattering away on the kitchen table within their line of sight.

"Is that a radio I'm hearing?" she said, watching the blood pressure cuff puff up as Johnny began his reading.

"Yep. Rescue crews are on the way." he replied without looking up from the dial.  
"They should be here really soon. I just heard from my partner a couple of minutes ago." he said, releasing the pressure in the cuff with a hiss. "How's your head?"

"Figuratively or physically?"

Gage pegged her with a wry look. "Both."

"I'm all better now. Thanks for coming back to me."

"I should be saying the same thing. You're one up on me, girlie girl. You've come back to me twice already on the same day."

"I wasn't about to die." she said seriously. "We aren't finished yet with each other. Kaulope, do I have a new brother to get to know in the future in you?" Her face broke up into tears. "I really really need one." she sobbed,  
holding her sore side. Gage quickly wiped her tears away, slowly shushing her into silence as she timidly reached out for his face.

Johnny didn't look away, nor did he get nervous this time. "Yes." he told her with conviction ...and love.  
Joy Yellowbird closed her eyes and fell asleep with a smile on her tired face.  
She was finally home.

Gage left her resting a few minutes later, convinced that her vitals signs were as good as they were going to get without an I.V. and oxygen and he painfully returned to his place at the kitchen table, hovering over the glowing CB radio.

-  
A sharp shouting jolted him awake. It was Roy, yelling at him through a crack in the debris pile that was all that remained of the smashed cabin.  
"Johnny?! I see you over there. Are you hurt?"

Gage groaned as he fought his way out of light shock. "Broken leg. Get Joy on some O2. She almost drown on me a while ago."

"What are her vitals?"

"Normal to low. Cracked ribs, concussion. She aspirated quite a bit but kept on breathing. She should be sleeping now." he gasped, still blinking dizzily. "You guys sure took your sweet time getting back here."

"The flash flooding stream got in the way. Where is she?"

"In the bedroom, on a dresser above the water. She's dry and warm."

"Okay. Captain Raider's got the engine crew cutting in to get her right now along with Squad 110. How are you feeling?" Roy asked ironically.

Gage didn't open his eyes. "Happy."

"Oh? And why's that?" Roy asked worriedly, seeing the pale shade on his partner's face as he began to grow slack in his expressions as he began to slump at an angle over the radio sitting on the table top.

"I've doubled the size of my f-family. Did it at dawn. Figured it was ap- appropriate. She needs me. And I..I think I need her.." Gage mumbled.

"Johnny? Don't try to talk. You're going into shock. If you're going to faint, try to do it face down. I can't reach your face to fix your airway from here."

"...yeah... I know. I think I'm ...lying down that way. Don't fret. I'm still happy..." he coughed painfully. "Roy?"

"What? I'm almost through to you." he yelled over the powerful buzz of a K-12.

"Don't tell Chet about this, only Dixie and those three CHiP'ers, or I'll..I'll kill you when.. when I wake..up." Johnny said groggily.

DeSoto had to grin when he watched Johnny's head fall forward over the angle of his elbows. "I promise. It'll be our own little secret, just between the six of us. All right?"

Johnny didn't answer as his forehead fell right onto an empty plate, as he blacked out in slow motion. His arms were still hugging the CB radio he had fixed.

Feeling amused and relieved, Roy jerked a finger at his partner through the hole as another firefighter peeked in with him for a status check. "Dinner anyone?" Roy quipped to reassure the fireman about their first victim's condition and his current safe situation. It was actually quite a peaceful scene with Johnny snoring away under the new dappling sunlight. The other fireman fought back a chortle as he finally hurried on to go help the others with Joy Yellowbird.

Somewhere, a bird began to sing. DeSoto's smile got bigger when he recognized it as a female American Goldfinch. ::Yellow bird indeed. Yeah,  
they're both gonna be just fine here. For now, and in the future..:: he thought.

FIN

Episode Forty Seven, I.V. Push Emergency Theater Live, Season Six

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Photo: Johnny looking down, working on something.

Photo: A screwdriver adjusting the guts of a radio.

Photo: Lightning flashing at night near an isolated cabin.

Photo: A sequoia grove, looking into the sky through them.

Photo: A tree fallen onto a cabin.

Photo: Roy peering through a debris crack, close up.

Photo: A woman in water jeopardy, Gage rescuing.

Photo: Roy climbing over timbered debris to get to Gage.

Photo: Roy and Johnny working on a victim.

Photo: Station 110 on the beach.

Photo: Johnny relaxing in rural clothes.

Photo: Joy Yellowbird, smiling.

Photo: Roy relaxing in rural clothes.

Photo: A picture of an American Goldfinch, sitting on a pine twig.

**************************************************

I.

:( This episode is dedicated to Julia Blackhawk who perished (  
on August 1st, 2007 in the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse. She was my friend and coworker and I will miss her very dearly. Love Patti ETL Host USA :( . :(

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Mark VII Productions, NBC, and Universal owns all of Emergency! and its Characters. 2009 . All rights reserved.

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***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the theater will be set free onto the web to reach as many readers as we can manage to find. Contributing to any ETL episode means that has permission to publish your work in the manner presented here on this website and on text versions of the stories on other sites. All web audience writers or volunteer consultants and their corresponding emails will be duly recorded and left in place within each show's music and imaged airing episode, pointing out that fan or professional EMS personnel's creative contribution. Theater Host- Emergency Theater Live! .. 


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